“The great enemy of the truth is very often not the lie, deliberate, contrived and dishonest, but the myth, persistent, persuasive and unrealistic.”

~John F. Kennedy, 35th President of the United States

It’s April Fools Day (and yesterday was my birthday) so, as a friendly gesture, I wanted to offer you the opportunity, on this very day, to stop fooling in your life and start doing.

There is an immense personal freedom in doing what you actually say that you are doing. In not hiding behind words.

People have a hard time taking you seriously when you continue talking about aspirations, undoubtedly the same aspirations, over-and-over again.

I am so very guilty of this. It has been a constant in my world for several years. Of course, I never really saw anything wrong with it, as my circle of friends and loved ones is filled with folks who want to be something, who see themselves as a particular thing, but never actually follow through the actions that one would be following if they truly were that thing.

It is a dance of illusion. Some of it is external, but mostly it is ourself that we are weaving the illusion for and not others.

Why do this. Why say that you are something you are not? Why plan to become something and never work on manifesting it?

Well quite simply it is, at least in my case, either fear or laziness. You are afraid of giving up who you know yourself to be and becoming who you believe you can be. This is the classic “The Devil that you know is better than the devil that you don’t” scenario. We, as humans, are afraid of the unknown, even the POSITIVE unknown.

Another possibility is fear that if someone knew the TRUE you, they would not like that person. We want to deflect attention from who we really are to the greater version, the who we wish we were. So we say outrageous things like “I am a Yogini,” when in fact we have done more exercise than opening the door for the Domino’s delivery guy in years. We do this because we think that admitting to being a laid-back person who likes movies and doesn’t cook their own meals does not seem likely to inspire new acquaintances to become our friends.

But why not be that thing that you aspire to then? Why live with the fear of giving up the NOW lifestyle for the NEW lifestyle?

Well, again just speaking on my own behalf here, there is also laziness. There is that mental disconnect between what you know you should do in order to jump the next hurdle in your life, and the actual doing of that thing.

In our example, yoga, the laziness kicks in when we go out and buy the yoga mat with accompanying video, get it home and discover (not surprisingly) that after years of pizza and marathon movies, yoga ain’t that easy kids! It’s hard work. You can’t just get into those poses. You can’t just hop on the mat and be instantly accomplished.

That’s why some people just call it “exercise” and others, the wiser ones, call it “meditation.” Because practicing those poses long enough to actually achieve them (and then trying to learn to HOLD them once you’ve achieved it) is definitely a meditation for your body. And withstanding it all with peace and grace is the meditation for you mind.

Years ago I began wishing (internally) that I was one of those girls you see in the hemp pants and sandals at the whole foods market, bouncy and lean, smiling and eating a mango. I wanted to wake up early everyday, feel love for everyone and do yoga on the beach. I knew that I’d be happier if I ate vegetarian and got rid of more of my “stuff,” if I stopped smoking and started jogging. If I shopped less and saved more. If I wrote more (and talked less) about being a writer.

If I believed in myself and worked for what I wanted, I’d be a success. I knew that.

But still I walked around for years telling everybody that I was this natural girl, this free-spirited, yet focused, successful happy hippie chick. And I was. In my mind. But in my actions….well, I just kept KNOWING what I should do to be happy but not implementing the DOING of it.

I think a lot of us are guilty of this. We see ourselves happy, in the future, in some alternate “self” and we just leave it there. You see, it is already real, in our mind. But we leave it there. We think that reading the Yoga Journal is equivalent to taking a yoga class and that watching a yoga video makes us a Yogini. It is the physical manifestation of this alternate future reality that takes all the work. And that is why we would just prefer to talk about it.

Is there anything wrong with this? Well, yes and no. I believe that all new things and new thoughts require a gestation period. We need to learn more about our new idea, try it on for size by thinking more about it and talking about it with others.

But other people will rarely call you out on something if you just keep talking about it. They will let you lie to them and yourself for a very long time (each time taking you less-and-less seriously.) Meanwhile you are AWARE that you are bullshitting them, but you can’t bullshit yourself.

You know that when you say you go to the gym everyday, you really mean the doughnut place NEXT to the gym. And it is your knowing that completely demotivates you. It is only yourself that you are hurting. It is only you that your are lying to, that you are cheating of opportunity.

Now, imagine that you took all of the time and energy that you put into thinking about your desires, talking about them, reading about the successes of other people who had the same desire and telling stories or lies about it all and you, instead, just got up, drove to a 45 minute yoga class and DID it. Guess what, you’d probably have spent less energy, and most certainly will have gained more confidence, than you would ever get in 30 years of talking and dodging.

That’s the truth.

How do I know? Because I am now DOING it. I am doing the things that I always knew I could or should do. And yes, they ARE hard work. But, they also offer positive rewards. Whereas talking and bullshitting about them had no positive reward at all, doing them is their own reward.

And I have discovered something along the way. People who are actually doing things, don’t have any need to keep talking about them. :)

You are who you are, so be who you WANT to be and you will have no more want in your life.

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